Every now again you read a book that makes a real impact - this book class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">certainty did that to me. The title is a play on "Making Poverty History", in this book Ash Barker takes you a trip through the different books of the Bible to see just much God cares about poverty and justice. Ash Barker is an Aussie who heads up a group called Urban Neighbours of Hope (UNOH) and for years worked in Melbourne before moving to slum in Thailand. Here are a few quotes from the book.
"There's much work to do. The church is still a mess. As Augustine is said to have stated, "The Church is a whore, but she's my mother." Or, as one of our pastors here in Philly said, "The Church is like Noah's ark - it stinks sometimes, but if you get out, you'll drown". (From the Preface by Shane Claiborne)
"It is not only our money that is needed; actual people are needed to. True, we don't need the colonial movements of missionaries in the past, but we do need the same sacrifices. What I have found is that if we share our money, we are considered generous. However, if we personally go and share our lives among the poor, we are considered as colonizers by the left, as communists by the right, and just plain crazy by the rest. Yet, I believe the redistribution of resources must include people. Real flesh-and-blood people who are known personally, can help form partnerships with indigenous Christian movements from anywhere."
"The last thing the Western Church needs is to consume more resources. Yet, a recent Christian book proclaimed just that in its title: You Need More Money! This is despite the findings of David Barrett from the World Evangelization Research Center that "the Church in World C (the western Church) spend 99% of its income on itself." Even if wealth did equal "blessing", the last group on earth in charge of redistributing it should be the Western Church!"
"Optimism is impossible, despair is a cop out; all that is left is Christian hope. When all around is creating a grinding despair, perhaps all we have to offer is this Christian hope - that things don't have to be this way"
"If we died tonight, would a poor person give us a letter of reference for heaven? What would the least of these brothers and sisters say about us? Jesus says that this is the litmus test of whether we have joined Jesus or not in this life. Do anything, but don;t miss out on eternal life by making a quick buck on the material treadmill in this life. We are made to change the world, not just change the products we consume."
"The bigger houses, cars and jobs for which people seem to sacrifice everything will not last. One of the saddest illustrations of this in Hamiltons book is a story of a merchant banker who finally agev into his wife's nagging and took a day off work to spend with his teenage son. They spent the day sailing in Sydney harbour and, while it would be the only time they did this, the son was overjoyed. Then the merchant bankers died suddenly of a heart attack a few weeks later. After the funeral, the son searched through his Dad's office diary and looked up the date of their outing. He found only these words, "Wasted Day". Jesus question comes to mind: "For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?" (Matt 16:26) The man lost all perspective of what mattered and what would live on after he died."
"There's much work to do. The church is still a mess. As Augustine is said to have stated, "The Church is a whore, but she's my mother." Or, as one of our pastors here in Philly said, "The Church is like Noah's ark - it stinks sometimes, but if you get out, you'll drown". (From the Preface by Shane Claiborne)
"It is not only our money that is needed; actual people are needed to. True, we don't need the colonial movements of missionaries in the past, but we do need the same sacrifices. What I have found is that if we share our money, we are considered generous. However, if we personally go and share our lives among the poor, we are considered as colonizers by the left, as communists by the right, and just plain crazy by the rest. Yet, I believe the redistribution of resources must include people. Real flesh-and-blood people who are known personally, can help form partnerships with indigenous Christian movements from anywhere."
"The last thing the Western Church needs is to consume more resources. Yet, a recent Christian book proclaimed just that in its title: You Need More Money! This is despite the findings of David Barrett from the World Evangelization Research Center that "the Church in World C (the western Church) spend 99% of its income on itself." Even if wealth did equal "blessing", the last group on earth in charge of redistributing it should be the Western Church!"
"Optimism is impossible, despair is a cop out; all that is left is Christian hope. When all around is creating a grinding despair, perhaps all we have to offer is this Christian hope - that things don't have to be this way"
"If we died tonight, would a poor person give us a letter of reference for heaven? What would the least of these brothers and sisters say about us? Jesus says that this is the litmus test of whether we have joined Jesus or not in this life. Do anything, but don;t miss out on eternal life by making a quick buck on the material treadmill in this life. We are made to change the world, not just change the products we consume."
"The bigger houses, cars and jobs for which people seem to sacrifice everything will not last. One of the saddest illustrations of this in Hamiltons book is a story of a merchant banker who finally agev into his wife's nagging and took a day off work to spend with his teenage son. They spent the day sailing in Sydney harbour and, while it would be the only time they did this, the son was overjoyed. Then the merchant bankers died suddenly of a heart attack a few weeks later. After the funeral, the son searched through his Dad's office diary and looked up the date of their outing. He found only these words, "Wasted Day". Jesus question comes to mind: "For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?" (Matt 16:26) The man lost all perspective of what mattered and what would live on after he died."
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